As it is known art, Broad-band Remote Authentication Services (BRAS) are used to control access by external users to the systems and services of a network. Before a user is permitted to access a resource provided in the network, the RAS authenticates the user and establishes connections between the user and any authorized resources. The RAS may also include accounting functionality for monitoring the service level realized at a given user connection. A user connection may terminate at the RAS or be further forwarded to another device in the network.
RAS systems need to be capable of supporting multiple types of user environments because groups of user connections may utilize different security, routing, service level and other protocols. Generally a RAS system is initialized with a base group of functions (services and protocols) that are expected to support a given network environment. Should a user connection require a service or connection protocol that is unsupported in the base set of protocols the service or protocol is added to the service set of the RAS, and the device is re-booted. One problem with this method is that the reboot operation undesirably disrupts existing user connections. The disruption makes it undesirable to remove functionality in the RAS operating system when user connections no longer require the functionality. Thus, as user connections are added and deleted, the number of protocols and services supported by the operating system increases. Unused functionality undesirably utilizes resources which could otherwise be allocated to required functionality, thereby reducing system performance.